Allmendinger aims to build momentum

The former Champ Car race-winner claimed his maiden stock car victory last Saturday in the Sprint Showdown, and says his accomplishment was a confidence-
booster. Not only did he win in NASCAR for the first time, but he also beat eventual All-Star winner Kasey Kahne in that same race.

"I beat the million-dollar winner," said Allmendinger. "We beat him straight up in that race. That's a lot of confidence and that's really like any other job. If you have confidence it makes everything seem a lot easier.

"And that's kind of for all of us right now. We've got a lot more confidence, you get back in the car, you feel better, you go faster, you don't do anything different but it just seems like you go faster because the confidence is right there.

"But these races are so tough to make every week and that's our main focus. It's just no mistakes in qualifying, just get in the show and run well each week."

The Red Bull driver says his team has been able to get over brake issues that have hampered their progress in recent races at both Darlington and Richmond. They easily made the field on time for both events, but 39th and 27th place finishes didn't help their cause of moving into the top-35 in the owners' standing.

"The last three weeks that I've been back in the car we've ran really well," Allmendinger added. "We haven't been able to get the finishes. We've been having a lot of brake trouble the last couple of weeks.

"We've been losing brakes during the race and that's why we wrecked at Richmond and we got in the wall at Darlington. We've finally gotten that figured out before last week."

"We just need to fight out way to get back in the top-35 and go from there."

Allmendinger has qualified for all the events he has entered since returning to the No. 84 Red Bull Toyota, where he was temporarily replaced by veteran Mike Skinner for five races earlier this season.